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His Lost Masterpiece

The legendary editor Robert Giroux, who died Friday at the age of 94, worked closely throughout his career with literary giants including Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, Jack Kerouac and Bernard Malamud. But there was one that got away. In his new book, “The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Publishers, Their Editors and Authors” (St. Martin’s Press), Al Silverman includes the following anecdote from Mr. Giroux, recounting how early in his career he lost the chance to publish “The Catcher in the Rye.” (The “Mr. Shawn” that J. D. Salinger mentions is The New Yorker’s editor at the time, William Shawn.)

I was eating a sandwich at my desk when our receptionist called. “Mr. Salinger is here,” she said, “and he wants to meet you.” I said: “Mr. Salinger? What’s his first name?” And she said, “Jerome, his name is Jerome.” I said, “Send him in.”

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OVERRULED As a young editor, Robert Giroux promised J. D. Salinger he would publish The Catcher in the Rye. But his boss at Harcourt said no.Credit
Robert Walker/The New York Times (1972)

In he came. He was very tall, dark-haired, had a horse face. He was melancholy looking. It’s the truth — the first person I thought of when I saw him was Hamlet.

“Giroux,” he said again. “Mr. Shawn has recommended you to me. But I want to tell you that to start me out it would be much better to publish my first novel instead of my stories.” I laughed, thinking, you want to be the publisher, you can have my seat. But I said, “I’m sure you’re right about that.” And I said, “I will publish your novel. Tell me about it.” He said, “Well, I can’t show it to you yet. It’s about half finished.” I said, “Well, let me be the publisher.” And he said yes, and we shook hands. ...

A year later a messenger came to the office with a package from Dorothy Olding, Salinger’s agent. ... There on the top page I read the title: “The Catcher in the Rye.” ...

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I gave [my boss at Harcourt, Eugene Reynal] the book to read. He didn’t like it, didn’t understand it. He asked me, “Is this kid in the book supposed to be crazy?” ...“Gene,” I said, “I’ve shaken hands with this author. I agreed to publish this book.”

“Yes,” he said, “but, Bob, you’ve got to remember, we have a textbook department.” And I said, “What’s that got to do with it?” He said, “This is a book about a kid going to prep school.” So he sent it to the textbook people, who read it and said, “It’s not for us.” ...

I remember apologizing to Salinger. He said, “Ah, it’s O.K. I expect things like that. It happens.” Well, I never thought it would